Spain's heavily indebted Telefonica (TEF) inks a deal to raise about €1.1B in cash by selling half of its shares in China Unicom (CHU) back to the company. Telefonica will retain a 5% stake in the Chinese operator and says it remains committed to the two's "strategic alliance."

CHU remains a dog. (Bow wow). I can't help but think the same miscreants who pump the stock up and down for suckers in HK and Shanghai have faithful and loyal relatives in New York to play other suckers withe ADR. On its merits, the stock has little going for it--that is, pans out, as opposed to the front-end claims. Who sees something on horizon to raise the price of the stuck for verifiable, legitimate reasons.